


NO EXIT ORION

by ShortcakeCrow



Category: Ib (Video Game), Love Live! School Idol Project, Love Live! Sunshine!!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, F/F, Possibly OOC
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-04
Updated: 2016-11-04
Packaged: 2018-08-29 01:22:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8470237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShortcakeCrow/pseuds/ShortcakeCrow
Summary: There was something about the unnaturally quiet gallery that gave Yohane the creeps. A few minutes ago at least the muffled noise of people whispering to each other and walking around had been there to keep them company, but for some reason, she couldn’t see anybody nearby. Her violet eyes narrowing, she quickened her strides, her long, dark hair flowing behind her. No, this place was definitely empty. How strange.--------------------------A quick Love Live and Ib crossover oneshot.





	

**Author's Note:**

> something quick for a very special person,,,, you know who you are

There was something about the unnaturally quiet gallery that gave Yohane the creeps. A few minutes ago at least the muffled noise of people whispering to each other and walking around had been there to keep them company, but for some reason, she couldn’t see anybody nearby. Her violet eyes narrowing, she quickened her strides, her long, dark hair flowing behind her. No, this place was definitely empty. How strange.

She turned around, heading back to the direction she originally came from, wrapping her arms around herself, already starting to shiver. Despite the leather jacket and boots she’d thrown on right before she left her house, she found that she was still underdressed for the current freezing temperature. Maybe the heater was malfunctioning - at least she hoped that was the case.

She came to a halt in front of the giant painting, where it all started - the moment she had let her gaze linger on the canvas, the lights went out, and everything went silent. Reaching for her phone, she wondered if she should call a friend. She’d already tried the exit, which happened to be locked, so that was out of the question. But before she could come to a decision, she noticed a string of letters just under the wooden frame, seemingly written with some sort of blue paint.

_"Come downstairs. I’d like to show you something.”_

She figured it couldn’t hurt to do as the stranger instructed, considering her lack of other options, so she headed for the white, marble staircase, leading towards the first floor of the art gallery. She followed the faint blue footprints she could spot every once in a while, until she arrived at a large painting laid out on the floor, depicting some sort of fish. She cautiously poked it with her foot, startled by the small ripples that appeared on the surface where she touched it.

Curiously, she slowly stuck her leg out again, this time letting out a gasp as it submerged in the picture, as if she’d stepped into a puddle. Flailing her arms, panicked, she lost her balance and fell forward, the painting swallowing her entire body this time, her scream cut off suddenly as her head went under.

She awoke sometime later, lying on the floor of some place she’d never seen before. She examined the dark hallway she’d found herself in, taking in the stray paintings hanging from the wall, grateful for the already dim lighting, as anything brighter most likely wouldn’t have helped with her pounding headache. She froze when she noticed another person near her; a girl around her age, one of her arms outstretched as if reaching for something. Golden hair framed her round face, and she had her eyes squeezed shut, mumbling something in her sleep.

Yohane got to her feet, carefully approaching the stranger, and attempting to wake her. When she remained unconscious even after various minutes of Yohane poking and shaking her, Yohane straightened back up, her brows furrowing. Maybe if she looked around a bit more she could make more sense of the situation.

After walking around a bit, she spotted a vase on a footstool, a single, azure rose inside. Right beside it was a smaller room with a small window. She could hear the other girl muttering something about a rose - maybe this belonged to her? She plucked it out of the water, then turned to look at the window, stepping closer as she slowly peered inside. She could have sworn she stopped breathing for a second; there was a painting of a lady dressed in red, her upper body having sprouted from the canvas, a wilted yellow rose in front of her, petals scattered all around.

Yohane swallowed audibly, reaching for the doorknob. She wasn’t sure why exactly she was doing this, but something in her gut was telling her to grab the rose and get out as soon as possible. She opened the door, and walked closer to the lady in red, trying not to alert her to her presence. Right as the painting’s eyes flickered up to meet hers, she quickly snatched the second rose, letting out a bloodcurdling scream as she turned on her heels and sprinted back where she came from. The lady, enraged, followed her, crawling on the floor at a frighteningly rapid speed. Her heart hammering in her chest, Yohane ran for the door leading to the room she first woke up in, and slammed it shut behind her, throwing her body weight against it as the lady pounded on the wood from the other side.

After she’d calmed her breathing, and the pounding had stopped, her gaze shifted to the girl on the floor, still asleep. She placed the two roses she’d acquired into a vase nearby, and approached her once again. This time she only had to call out to her once before she stirred in her sleep, a honey-colored eye slowly cracking open, blinking up at her, confused.

“Ah, I’m sorry, what’s…?” her words trailed off as she placed a hand on her head, rubbing a spot on her forehead. She was probably still rather dazed.

Yohane patiently waited for her to collect herself, and after a minute or two, was met with a shy, polite smile.

“Do you perhaps have any idea what’s going on here?” the girl inquired, and Yohane shook her hand.

“No, sorry. I woke up here just like you a little while ago.”

“I see” the girl said, dusting off her white dress as she stood up. “Well, considering that we both seem to be in the same boat here… Could I ask for your name?”

“Oh, it’s Yohane” Yohane replied, her eyes following the girl’s movements, flustered for a moment by her graceful mannerisms. Even the way she stumbled a bit on unsteady feet seemed somehow elegant, if that was even possible. “What about you?”

“Hanamaru” she bowed her head slightly.

Yohane felt the corners of her mouth turn up as she stuck her hand out for a handshake. Hanamaru seemed nice enough; she was beaming back at her, most likely glad that she wouldn’t have to get through this alone.

They decided to go in the opposite direction this time - removing the roses from the vases -, as Yohane didn’t think wandering around the scary painting lady would be a good idea. They made quite a bit of small talk on the way, and Yohane quickly came out of her shell, her bubbly personality back in action. Gushing about a videogame she’d purchased a while ago, she found herself laughing for the first time after the day had taken a 180 degree turn. Hanamaru seemed to be enjoying herself too, which was definitely nice.

They ran into some more moving paintings, sneaking around corners whenever they could to avoid them, other times rushing across entire corridors to get them to lose sight of the two. It wasn’t nearly as scary in the company of someone else, but Yohane still found herself letting out a high-pitched shriek every once in a while, holding onto Hanamaru’s hand for dear life.

One of these screams, funnily enough, was caused by her running into a new, smaller girl, who, upon contact, was knocked back and landed on her backside, tears gathering in the corners of her eyes.

“Oh, sorry!” Yohane offered an outstretched hand, and the girl sniffled, hesitantly letting Yohane pull her to her feet. “Are you okay?”

She nodded, still quiet, hugging herself, shaking ever so slightly. She reached up with one of her hands, playing with her bright red hair as her emerald eyes stared straight into Yohane’s own.

“We’re sorry if we startled you!” Hanamaru said, offering her a reassuring smile. “Are you one of the visitors from the gallery?”

The girl nodded once again, her trembling having eased just a little bit.

“What’s your name?” Hanamaru asked.

The girl stayed silent for a moment, then opened her mouth, and in an almost comically squeaky voice replied:

“Ruby.”

Clearing her throat, she continued, this time in her presumably normal voice, calmer.

“I couldn’t find anybody, and I was really scared…”

“Well,” Yohane offered, placing a hand on her hip, eyeing the tiny Ruby, “you should tag along, then. We should stick together if we’re all stuck in here.”

Ruby nodded, nervously looking them up and down. Having apparently decided that she preferred Hanamaru’s company, she clung to her side, daring to glance at Yohane only now and again. Maybe she was intimidated, Yohane couldn’t tell. But either way, after having introduced themselves, they continued on their journey to find the way outside.

Ruby didn’t talk much - she was really shy, that was obvious -, and she mostly contributed to the conversation through occasional nods and shakes of her head. Once Hanamaru had offered her her hand, she gripped it tightly and didn’t let go. In her other hand, she was clutching her own rose, a red one. Neither of the other two questioned it. They’ve gotten much more relaxed as well, their group having grown in size.

However, this turned out to be a big mistake, as they realised soon. They stopped at a crossroad, discussing which hallway they should follow, when the ground began shaking, and vines began sprouting from the floor. Screaming yet again, Yohane tripped, stumbling into the wall behind her back as she was separated from Hanamaru and Ruby.

“Are you alright?” she heard Hanamaru ask, sensing the underlying worry in her voice, and she replied quickly.

“Yeah, I’m fine. What about you guys?”

“Same here. I don’t know if we can get around this wall, though.”

For the first time in God knows how long, Yohane heard Ruby speak up.

“Maybe we should split up… For the time being.”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea” Yohane half-mumbled, glancing around to see if she could find anything to cut the vines with. No such luck.

“Both hallways lead in the same direction, right? There’s probably a point where they meet up, then. We could try and follow them for a little while, and if we don’t find anything, we can come back and think of something else” Hanamaru suggested. Yohane chewed her lip, distressed that she was going to be left alone again, but she supposed they had no choice. She reluctantly agreed.

Turning towards the door at the end of the corridor, she started walking, jumping whenever she saw anything move even slightly. She gave up trying to be careful a few minutes later, breaking out in a full on sprint, rushing past various paintings and sculptures - as well as a few nameplates missing the piece they belonged to -, and she only slowed down once she reached a staircase. Maybe she should turn back now. She saw quite a few sharper objects on her way that she could use to cut the vines that had separated them, so it should be fine.

But before she could actually put the plan into motion, she heard a voice in the distance. Holding her breath, she took a few steps down, listening intently - yeah, that was definitely Ruby. Looks like she won’t need to go back after all. Following Ruby’s voice, Yohane began descending the stairs, taking the steps 3 at a time. She’d almost reached the bottom when she heard something alarming, that caused her to come to a halt. Hanamaru had raised her voice.

“Why do you have that knife?”

Yohane froze, standing motionless as her heart rate began rising again.

“It’s okay!” she heard Ruby stutter out an answer. “It’ll all be fine! You can stay here and play with me, and we’ll be very happy together!”

“Ruby, you’re scaring me…”

At that moment, realisation flashed in Yohane’s eyes, as she recalled one of the abandoned nameplates. “Ruby, 1989”. She didn’t think much of it before, but now she found herself running to Hanamaru’s rescue, convinced that they need to find the exit as soon as possible and lose Ruby along the way. Before she could do anything, though, she was forced to come to a stop, having spotted Hanamaru’s rose in Ruby’s hand. Hanamaru was standing in the corner, nervously staring at the palette knife in Ruby’s other hand.

Yohane didn’t dare come any closer. She knew that their roses were linked to them, somehow, from what had happened before, and she didn’t want to risk Hanamaru getting hurt if something happened to her own rose.

“Give- give her back her rose” she cursed how scared she sounded silently. Ruby lifted the palette knife, and pointed it at the rose Yohane’s been holding onto.

“I don’t mind, but I want that one in exchange.”

“You don’t need to-“ Hanamaru started, but Yohane cut her off.

“It’s fine.”

Clutching the rose with a shaking hand, she offered it to Ruby, who took it gratefully, giving her Hanamaru’s. She turned sharply, marching off in a direction Yohane recognised as the potential exit. She rushed over to Hanamaru, and after having confirmed that she was still alright, grabbed her hand and ran after Ruby. She avoided Hanamaru’s worried gaze, only tightening the hold she had on her.

She could hear every piece in the gallery coming to life behind them, chasing after them relentlessly. This was not good. This was most definitely not good. She felt a hand grabbing the back of her jacket, and she screamed, barely managing to hold onto the other girl. She shook the hand off, adrenaline cursing through her veins, and felt herself overcome with relief when she spotted what looked like the original gallery in the distance. They had lost the paintings at that point as well - she didn’t have time to wonder about the reason though, as she ran into some sort of invisible wall, Hanamaru’s hand slipping from her grip, the other girl able to pass her without a single problem.

Hanamaru turned around, confused, and Yohane’s gaze inadvertently shifted to the rose in her hand.

“What’s wrong?” Hanamaru asked.

“I don’t think I can pass without a rose. Sorry” Yohane pursed her lips. She held out her hands, placing them against the invisible barrier. Yeah, she wasn’t getting through that. Before Hanamaru could react, she continued. “Look, I’ll be fine. You should leave, you might be able to get some help that way maybe.”

Hanamaru gave her a long, prying stare, but Yohane just smiled back, gesturing towards the exit. Hanamaru slowly took a step back with a sigh, giving her a nod.

“I’ll be right back, I promise.”

And off she went. Yohane slid down to the floor, crossing her legs, as she was left alone once again.

\--------------------------

Hanamaru snapped out of her trans, turning her head all around as she took in her surroundings. What had she been doing again…? Oh, yeah… She was here as a visitor. She’d been waiting to check out the gallery for a while now, but only found time for it today. She shook her head, ignoring the weird feeling in the back of her mind that she was forgetting about something. She needed to find someone, though, that much she was sure of. Someone… Oh, yes, her sister. She can’t have her getting lost in the crowd.

Hanamaru opened her mouth to call out to her, but before she could, she spotted her in front of a painting in the corner. She walked up to her, prepared to scold her for running off alone.

“Geez, I’ve been looking for you. You should be more careful, you know.”

Her sister nodded absentmindedly, still mesmerized by the picture. Hanamaru stopped to look at it for a bit. It was an oil painting of a girl with violet eyes and long, dark hair, thorny vines wrapped around her neck, with a single blue rose blooming in the middle.

“It’s really pretty, right?” her sister asked, and she nodded, blinking a few times as she felt tears welling up in her eyes. Strange. Maybe she was developing some new allergy.

“Yes. We need to go, though. It’s already pretty late.”

“Okay!” her sister beamed, taking her hand. “We can come back some other time, though, right?”

“Sure thing, Ruby.”


End file.
